If you’re new to working out, you may experience some unfamiliar sensations after leaving the gym. Sore muscles, achy joints, exhaustion—it’s enough to think you’ll never recover enough to keep going back. Take heart: though the effects of exercise on your body may be pretty weird, especially when you drill down into exactly what’s causing them, science is here to help. Not only can it explain what’s happening to you, it also fuels research into countermeasures that can help you feel better. Below, learn how to recover your energy and restore your body, upping your chances of sticking with a fitness plan.

Your sore muscles endure microtrauma over and over again.

The science behind it: During exercise that’s unfamiliar or strenuous, muscles suffer tiny tears due to the strain being put on them. These tiny tears throughout the muscle fibers then become inflamed, which causes pain. This phenomenon even has a name: delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS. (Don’t worry, though—the tears heal quickly as your muscles adapt.)

Help your body adapt: Try incorporating yoga or simple stretching into your daily routine to ease your pain, keep your muscles pliable, and prevent them from going from sore to tight.

Treatments to seek out: Some experts suggest heat therapy, advocating for raising the body’s temperature to help boost blood flow and therefore elevate the supply of oxygen and healing nutrients. If this school of thought works for you, try a heating pad or a session in your gym’s sauna. However, others believe that heat can aggravate rather than assuage inflammation. A cold-based treatment like cryotherapy or its low-tech relative, the ice bath, may help reduce inflammation within minutes, which in turn will relieve soreness and speed up muscle recovery.

If shivering in a -200°F chamber doesn’t sound like your idea of a good time, spring for a massage. Good options include myofascial release, which targets tight, contracted muscles, or Thai massage, which stretches muscles enough to have earned the nickname “lazy man’s yoga.”

Your blood becomes acidic.

The science behind it: During intense workouts, if your body can’t provide muscles with enough oxygen from the bloodstream, it taps into other energy sources. A byproduct of this so-called anaerobic state is lactic acid, which causes the body’s pH to drop. Athletes who engage in brief, explosive activities such as sprinting or bodybuilding exploit this state to improve their performance. The rest of us, however, tend toward endurance exercises in which an acidic state is more likely to induce fatigue. Long story short, if all of a sudden you feel like you’re wading through a pool of molasses instead of running on a treadmill, you probably have too much lactic acid in your bloodstream.

Help your body adapt: You might have to call it an early day at the gym if this happens, but you shouldn’t forgo future workouts. Exercise regularly instead, and don’t push yourself too hard, too fast. Think of investing in a gym membership so your body can learn how to better dispose of lactate before lactic acid builds up.

Treatments to seek out: While the body starts cleaning up excess lactic acid as soon as you stop working out, you might also go for a deep-tissue massage. Manual manipulation can move lactic acid out of sore muscles and into soft tissue, where increased water intake will flush it out of your system.

Or you might try something a little different with flotation therapy. Most use the dark, quiet float tanks to remove stressors from their environment, enabling them to relax fully or think creatively. However, studies have demonstrated that this kind of sensory-deprivation experience can help the body deal with lactate and pain after workouts better than simply resting while seated.

Your powerhouse lungs heave until you’re out of breath.

The science behind it: While it might seem like your heart is about to explode as you ramp up your workout pace, your lungs also shift into high gear, feeding much-needed oxygen to muscles. This, in turn, causes you to use more lung capacity than usual, taking in up to eight times your normal volume of air. Your lungs might not feel so great afterward, especially if you’re not used to working out or you’re exercising outdoors where allergens abound.

(This unpleasant, out-of-breath feeling is pretty typical, but if you’re experiencing shortness of breath—as though you can’t get enough air—you should consult a doctor.)

Help your body adapt: Fit in a warm-up to ease your lungs into the workout. Also, be mindful of your breathing. Keep an eye—or hand—on your stomach to see if your belly rises and falls with each breath. If it does, you’re breathing deeply enough (i.e., from the bottom of your lungs).

Treatments to seek out: If you want an alternative approach to easing breathing difficulties, try halotherapy, commonly known as salt therapy. It enjoys a long history in Eastern Europe as a way to open airways and treat respiratory problems like asthma, allergies, and bronchitis. Salt caves are an increasingly common sight in the United States, and they’re an excellent place to lie back, breathe deeply, and relax.

Your body literally starts breaking itself down for energy.

The science behind it: Glucose, which comes from stored carbohydrates, fuels workouts. If you don’t have enough of it, your energy stores will be depleted and your body will start to break down fat and protein for that extra energy. This process will leave you completely fatigued rather than totally energized after working out.

Help your body adapt: Make sure you’re getting enough calories before and after workouts. But if your goal is to lose weight, the caloric balance you strike might still leave you feeling burned out.

Treatments to seek out: Many pre- and post-workout supplements are designed to replenish your energy levels, and they often provide an added protein boost. You can also see a professional to receive vitamin-B12 shots. These injections usually contain a cocktail of ingredients in addition to vitamin B, like essential amino acids, which may increase energy and help the body burn fat.